Near the end of the vintage Masters of the Universe figure line Mattel began plans for a spin-off prequel series called The Powers of Grayskull. This series would explore the past of Eternia and the origins of He-Man's power. Sadly, the series never came to be, however a few toys from the series did manage to get produced as some of the last MOTU items. Among them are the three dinosaurs Bionatops, Turbodactyl, and Tyrantisaurus Rex which made it to USA shelves and the two giants Tytus and Megator who only saw release in Europe.

Due to the extremely limited release and short run, Tytus (as well as Megator) is one of the rarest and most sought after items in the line. On the rare occasion when one does show up on E-bay I have never seen one sell for less than $600! (And that's loose and incomplete -the Mint in Box ones, forget about it!) As a result most fans, including myself, do not own one and had pretty much resigned to the fact that we never will. Until now at least. While we will probably never have the vintage figures, thanks to the Four Horsemen we now can own the character as part of the Classics line.

Tytus comes in a large window box with a similar green Grayskull brick design. The back of the box shows off other figures in the line, all of them characters who were around in Preternian times except Skeletor -though supposedly a time traveling Keldor was going to be a major villain in the Powers Of Grayskull series had it been fully developed. For some reason Moss Man is shown without flocking -which really demonstrates how he just wouldn't have looked right without it. As always there is also a bio for the character in the new continuity.

Since almost nothing was known about the original planned storyline, this is essentially all new stuff and I can't really complain about anything except the allusions to stuff I don't like in the changed He-Ro back story. I think it would be more appropriate to talk about those when I review He-Ro himself. (basically He-Ro got the shaft in favor of King Grayskull) One thing to note is how it mentions the mountains of Perpetuia, when in modern Eternia the area is known as the Plains of Perpetuia. Gives you an idea just how drastically the landscape was altered by the Spell of Separation.

Out of the box Tytus stands much taller than the standard figures. The box says he's 12 inches tall but actually the figure comes a bit closer to 13. Strangely though the Classics version is actually SHORTER than the vintage! Obviously the sculpt on this guy is all new, and it is very well done. He really blends in to the line and does not seem out of place at all. The paint job is very well done and the detailing in the sculpt is just as superb as you'd expect from the Horsemen. His muscles are fully accurate with the pulsing veins, and his face is actually somewhat reminiscent of He-Man himself. Now, while the general build of the guy matches that of the standard figures, his articulation in not the same. Tytus has far less articulation, which is a bit disappointing on one hand, but it's important to note that had he been given the same amount of articulation as a standard figure, the cost of producing him would have gone up substantially making him have to sell for about $100 instead of his actual price of $40.

Tytus' head is technically on a ball joint, but his long hair is a very solid plastic and limits the movement you can get quite a bit. The vintage Tytus actually had rooted hair and a removable headband. The Classics headband is part of the sculpt and doesn't come off. His torso has the swivel waist, but no ab crunch. His armor is removable much like the standard figures and sports the Grayskull G logo like the vintage. (early concept art for He-Ro also had a G on his armor) His shoulders are not ball jointed and can only move back and forth allowing him to raise and lower his arms. He does have elbow joints and wrist swivels. but no bicep swivel. His right hand is sculpted to hold his weapon while the left is a closed fist.

Like the shoulders, the hips are not ball jointed and only swing back and forth. Furthermore the loincloth is a harder plastic so you can't get much movement anyway. He can't sit down basically. He does have knee joints and actually does have the calve/boot cut swivel, but no ankle joints. The weird result of this, as you can see in the picture, is he actually has to stand with his knees bent slightly as when they are straight his feet point up and won't go flat on the ground. To be honest, I'm okay with the amount of articulation we got. It's not bad and adding more would not be worth the price increase in my opinion, but it is worth noting he doesn't have as much as the normal figures. And even so, it is still more than the vintage one had.

Tytus has one accessory which is a recreation of his vintage weapon. It seems a bit bigger than the vintage one, despite the vintage figure being larger, but that makes sense a bit since the standard figures are bigger. The device is meant to be a figure capturing device. Going by the vintage box art, it was designed to go down over a figure's head and would then hold them so they could be lifted up captured in the weapon. I would not recommend doing this with your Classics figures though!

I'm not sure since I've never seen a vintage one in person, but going by the appearance, and the box art seems to back this up, the vintage figure's weapon had a softer rubbery plastic for the grips. The new device has grips of a solid hard plastic and do not bend with the figure. While it can grip the figures, there is a very high risk of the tabs scratching the paint. I'd advise using this for display only. On that note, the device is rather heavy for the figure and tends to pull his arm down. I find the best, and most space saving, pose is the slung over the shoulder look.

Despite the more limited articulation I am still very pleased with how this guy turned out. He works right along with the line and comes off as what he should; a giant in the Masters line. He doesn't look like a doll, he looks like a 12 inch He-Man figure. Given the fact that I will almost certainly never own a vintage Tytus, (then again I once thought I would never own the three towers playset and I now do) I am thrilled that Mattel and the Horsemen have allowed me to own the character in some figure form.

Tytus will be available as a reissue on Mattycollector.com on June 15. Good luck and until next time, Good Journey.

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